Phoenix Temple

"A clown trying to be a warrior!"

Saying those few words, Cot turned his attention back to the fight in preparation for the final battle.

As the heavy steps went further away, Gerald grinned as his invisible figure slowly rose from the ground. The one running away was not him, instead, it was just the stone puppet he created.

When he pretended to fall down, he transformed his Stone Armor into a proper puppet and at the same time made himself invisible.

It was extremely difficult to do both at the same time, but luckily he only needed to do it for a few seconds to trick anyone that might be watching. In the darkness of the cave, the imperfections of his Invisibility weren't that noticeable and he could afford to use it without concern.

He quickly drank a Greater Mana Potion and then started to float weightlessly. With a gentle push from the ground, he immediately rose up and reached the ceiling not long after.

Taking out a pouch of Scent Removing Powder, he quickly smeared it over himself and then soundlessly floated across the battlefield towards the ancient building.

The Bishop thought he felt something and looked at the ceiling, but since there was nothing there, he quickly turned his gaze back towards the battle.

The Minecrawlers proved to be more difficult to handle than previously thought and before even a quarter of an hour went by, there was the first casualty. A warrior split from the group in his excitement and was then almost immediately buried underneath multiple maddened beasts.

Even though he wore metal armor, once they got a hold of him, he was torn apart in seconds and he barely had enough time to scream in horror before a fountain of blood gushed out of his broken limbs and torn muscles as he died.

His sudden death shocked those around him, but that only led to more mistakes being made, which led to further injuries.

A guy was a second too slow to move out of the way and his right hand was clamped down by the strong Minecrawler's mandibles, making him lose three fingers instantly.

Things like that erupted across the entire battlefield, and soon the ground was painted red in human blood.

Just when they thought things couldn't get any worse, the entire cavern shook as the King finally made its appearance.

With almost four meters tall and five metric tons of pure aggression, the Minecrawler King released a screech that made everyone fall to the ground in pain, including the Minecrawlers.

A deathly silence followed as the disoriented combatants picked themselves back up with difficulty.

"Son of a bitch! My ears!" Gerald silently cursed from the roof of the ancient building while covering his ears. He was observing everything from a safe distance and waited for an opportunity to sneak inside.

"It's time! Get ready!" Bishop Argoch shouted and gave the order. The ballistae were brought forward and loaded with the poisoned steel bolts, ready to be fired.

"We need to lure it closer, we have to make these shots count!"

"Rayner, use your Fire magic!"

"I'm on it!" the guy shouted back, and with a few short words, a giant flaming snake was conjured into existence.

"Go!" Rayner shouted and brought his hands down. The Fire Snake rushed across the battlefield and coiled around the legs of the Minecrawler King before its temperature surged and flames engulfed the animal.

Rumble!

The cavern shook as the giant beast crashed into a wall and rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames. The heat didn't do much except enrage it further, and as expected, it turned towards the origin of that Fire magic.

"Get those ballistae ready! Here it comes!"

As the Minecrawler King rushed across the battlefield like an enraged bull, the guys on the other side prepared spells and weapons to take it on.

"Now!" Dark Knight shouted.

Pang, pang, pang!

The ballistae were triggered at the same time and the weights holding the net shot forward, flying forth like a giant open mouth.

Skreee!

Another powerful scream came from the King, but the people didn't have time to wallow in pain. As the beast fell to the ground with the net tangled around its body, they had to quickly ready the next shot.

Pang, pang!

The sound of breaking chain links traveled to their ears, as the Minecrawler King was slowly tearing the metal net apart.

"Hold it down!"

Rumble!

Bishop Argoch immediately used his powerful Stone Hands to hold the beast in place, unfortunately with little effect. The stone fingers cracked and broke, forcing him to cast the spell again and again in quick succession.

Trevor and Renna Castri pelted the beast with Ice magic, while Cot and Khand, the mage from Mad Weasels, released stone boulders from the ceiling.

Even with all that falling on the Minecrawler King, the beast endured with its tough magic-reinforced body.

Fwoosh!

Ka-cha!

The first poison bolt arrived with great force behind it, but upon impact, it only cracked the exoskeleton and bounced off, not even piercing the entire way through.

"Again!"

Pang!

Another bolt, another bounce.

"This is going to take a while…" Gerald frowned as he commented quietly and then looked down at the entrance. "I think it's time for me to go…"

He gracefully jumped down while still being invisible and quickly ran through the massive stone archway and through the door inside.

"Let's see… I need some light…"

He copied the spell that Elly made, and with his bit of training during the previous day he was able to quickly make a similar floating light.

He simply released it a few meters above his head and let it sustain itself by draining his Mana.

The inside of the ancient building was a massive stone hall made of red and orange stone, with the same tiny golden runes all over the place.

Something that appeared to be of biological origin littered the floor, with exoskeletons of increasingly bigger sizes laying on the ground among massive stone pillars.

"Bleah! Is this where these beasts poop? Disgusting!" Gerald rose from the ground and decided to explore the place by flight. Besides the place being used as a toilet, It was clear from what he saw that the Minecrawlers molted their external armor as they grew.

Looking around the place, Gerald found many depictions of flaming birds, presumably Phoenixes, all across the stone hall.

Murals of different shapes and sizes also decorated the walls and columns, with the most impressive-looking sculptures guarding the entrance to the next room.

"What is this? A Phoenix Temple?"

As he entered deeper underground he felt the temperature slowly increasing. The stone walls also appeared warm to the touch while the air carried a slight sulfuric smell.

With the curiosity driving him forward, Gerald continued forward until he came to another room. It had three doors, one on each side. One of them, the first in the middle, was open and appeared to be leading further down. It was also the place where the heat was coming from.

The other ones were tightly closed and no matter how hard he pushed or pulled, they didn't budge at all. Even using Fire spells and Earth magic did nothing to them, as they seemed to be completely immune to any external force.

"Hmm, this is getting weirder by the minute!"